Liquid fuel



ALA. F. M. SEIGLE LIQUID FUEL Filad Dec. 12 1925 u r 1 I I I v I 1 Adol he Antoine Francois Marius n w c M, v U 1E 221 w v m l r 1: I: as M n t A tain a small Patented June 6, 1933 UNITED STATES,

P TENT OFFICE LIQUID FUEL Application filed December 12, 1923, Serial No. 6811,1159, and in mace ua ia, 1923.

The invention has for'its object, as a new industrial product, a liquid fuel which is essentially composed of carbon and hydrogen,

but may accessorily if not accidentally, conproportion of oxygen and traces of sul hur. V

. In act, the invention relates to a new liquid which is very inflammable, altough' relatively not very light, and which can be in- 10 dust-rially extracted in considerable proportions from the crude oils of petroleum or shale,.fuel oils, gas oils and analogous substances of a petroliferous or shaly nature.

Hereunder are stated the main characteris- 15 tic features which clearly differentiate the new hydrocarbon product of a very inflammable nature from those of the same class which are at present known in the industry and trade of petrols, gasolines, various liquid fuels etc.

Moreover a process of manufacture of the said productwill be also hereinafter described, but solely by way of example.

Onephysical feature of the product according to the invention consists in the very abnormal concurrence of the following facts: the ignition point of the new product is somewhat below that of the usual gasoline ex-' tracted from petroleum, while possessing a the non-inflammable and more or less heavy oils, and even viscous oils, from which it' was extracted, and which, omitting their percentage of oxygen, sulphur etc., contain as a rule from 88 to 89 parts by weight of carbon for 12 to 11 parts of hydrogen,lwhilst the analogous composition of the standard gasoline is from85 to 86 parts of carbon by weight for a 15 to 14 parts of hydrogen, and this whatever may be the origin andpercentage composition of the crude or heavy petroleums from which the said standard gasoline has been extracted.

In short, the aggregate of light hydrocardensity greater than that of the said gasoline,

by its odour which remains very peculiar another reagent.-

bons composing the productaccording to the invention is isomeric with the aggregate of the original heavy hydrocarbons, whilst (as is known) the hydrocarbons composing the standard gasolines obtained by cracking or by a mere distillation are, on the whole, the homologues of their original-hydrocarbons, due tothe increase in hydrogen or the diminution in carbon of tion of the latter.

Furthermore, the hydrocarbons composingthe product according to the invention are mainly non-saturated hydrocarbons, whilst most of the homologous hydrocarbons entering into the composition of the standard gasolines are saturated hydrocarbons.

A direct consequence of this latter. feature is that the new product is much more sensitive to the action of certain chemical-agents than the gasolines of the standard type. For 7 instance the sulphuric acid partially coniverts the new product into sulpho-conjugated derivatives or various sulphonate'd products Whose colour varies from a bright red to a greenish brown and having strong odours revealing the presence of ketone derivatives such as menthone,'eucalyptol etc.

On thecontrary, chloridejof calcium only forms a feeble precipitate which can be the percentage composireadily separated from the liquid thus puri- 80' fied and freed from colour, and whose etherlike odour is of a very characteristic nature.

The new product can always be recognized when it is in the crude state that is to say when it is discharged from the apparatus, as well as when it has been treate by one or This fact is all the more characteristic as be used, whereas the new liquid fuel is directly very soluble. in all said alcohols, and in all proportions, if the alcohols are absolute, and as far as 80 to 85 percent of fuel in the industrial alcohols. Further, such alcoholic'solutions are entirely stable, and remain liquid at a temperature of -35 0. The above-mentioned characteristics clears ly difl'erentiate the, product according to the invention from theother light and inflammable hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum of shale, which are already known, and nowwill be given the principal characteris-; tic features which differentiate the same from the equally light and inflammable hydrocarbon extracted from the coal-peat or.

lignite-tar, and which is usually sold under the denomination of benzol.

L'When treated with nitric acid, the fractional parts of the new roduct which distil 6 between 80 and 90C., 0 not furnish nitrobenzine, whereas the same fractional parts of benzol will furnish it in abundance. In other words, this means that the improved fuel contains substantially no hydrocarbon of the aromatic series.

2. The new product in the crude state has a density of 0,735 to 0,780, according to the nature of the raw material from which it has been extracted, whilst refined benzol has a density of about 0,870 to 0,890.

'3. A somewhat intensive cooling to or 0."has no efiect upon the new product, whereas benzol becomes frozen throughout the mass at -4 ,0. y

4. Leaving out of account its small proportion of oxygen, sulphur etc. the elementary composition, of the new product is, as has been above said, from 88 to 89 parts by weight of carbon for 12-11 parts of hydro- 6 en, whereas the average composition of nzol is 92 parts by weight of carbon for 8 parts of hydrogen. Having thus explained the main chemical,

physical and other characteristic features 5 which difierentiate the new hydrocarbon product of very inflammable nature accordmg to thevinvention, from those of the same kind at present known in the industry and trade of petrols, gasolines, etc. Iwill now so describe by way 0 example one of the procwhich can be used for the industrial. manufacture of this new product.

In the ap nded drawing showing disgrammatical y an installationfor carrying as the said process into 'efiec't. v

Fig. 1 is a general view, and Fig.2 is a perspective view on a larger scale of a detail. Accordinito the herein described process any one of t e raw materials above specified;

'lo'crnde petroleum or shale oils, fuel oils, gas

oils 'etc. may' be used, but in order to' facilitate the comprehension of the following process, thelatter will be applied to the treatment of. crude petroleum, wherefrom the water and the usual gasoline have been pours of oil or heavy preliminarilyextracted,and whose density at 15 0. is 0,897, its 'nition point (in an open vessel) being If such crude petroleum is treated by fractional distillation, no vapour is given oif up to 140 0.; up to 200 0., 5 percent is vaporized; up to 300 0.,

33 per cent is vaporized; up to 350 0.,

per cent is vaporized and the residue consists of 15 per cent of dry tar.

In a vaporization apparatus or boiler o suitably heated by a combustible of any kind, the oil is introduced in a continuous manner after having been preliminarily heated to according to the arrow 1, and at a pressure substantially equal to the atmosphere pressure, into the bottom of the worm retort A (Fig. 1'), circulate upwardly by their natural ascension in the annular part 1) divided by the discs 0 (Figs. 1 and 2), and during this upward circulation they are caused to flow through metallic chips or turnings laid upon said discs. 1

This method of circulation afiords a gradual and systematic superheating of the vaydrocarbons to adetermined and easily adjustable temperature, without risk of an abrupt decomposition, such as takes place in cracking apparatus; the metallic chips which thesevapours are caused to meet with upon the whole of their path will. on the one hand regulate the temperature and on the other hand will exercise a catalytic action upon these hydrocarbons. The metallic fragments used are the waste from machine work upon pieces of iron,

nickel, copper and other usual metals, and

they are aid upon the annular discs 0 so that the temperatures assumed by these fragments when in contact with the central heating tube t shall correspond to the temperatures necessary for a suitable catalytic action. a

In order to increase the combined efiects of heat and catalysis and to ensure an efi'ective stirr' of thehydrocarbon molecules,

the circulation of thelatter is alternately reversed, accordingto the arrow 2 as shown in in the'retort to a temperature betwen 520 1 and 530 0., after having been subjected to a molecular transformation due to the action of the catalysts which, as is well known, have-more or less marked aflinities for carbon and hydrogen, and efiect. at one or another favourable temperature, a displaceby'the double casing.

ori inal hydrocarbons.

ment ofthe atoms of one or the other of these two substances, which results in a mixture of compounds having physical properties (viscosity, ignition point, density etc.) which are quite diiferent from those of the In short, hydrocar ons are produced in which the atomic groups are less and less condensed.

The vapours leaving the retort as shown by the arrow 3 are brougllgit into an expansion and cooling apparatus consisting of two truncated cone shaped sheet metal pieces constituting a double casing, and of an inner cylindrical body e connected by tubes 7 and f with the annular chamber formed vapours circulate The hydrocarbon through the annular part of the truncated cone (1 according tothe arrows 4. ,Water,

is thus maintained in. ebullition and at a pressure of 10 to 12 kilogrammes in the annular space between (1 and d and in the cylindrical body e, so that a constant temperature between 200 and 220 C. willprevail in the part wherein the hydrocarbon vapours circulate. c

In this expansion and cooling apparatus,

hydrocarbon vapours are subjected to two contrary'adtions; on the one hand the molecular expansion produced by the change in the volume occupied by the vapours, and on and will hence become more voluminous; so

that a molecular expansion is in fact produced.

Moreover these discharged vapours are at I a temperature of 530 C. and since the water boiling under pressure is maintained in the apparatus between 210 C. and 220 0., these 'same hydrocarbon vapours will undergo a very abrupt cooling, and their temperature falls at once from 530 to 250- (1., and a molecular place. I

These simultaneous and contrary actions result in a great disturbance in the molecules, and the metallic fragments disposed on the discs 9 will facilitate certain molecular recontraction necessarily takes arrangements between the undlily heavy hydrocarbon. vapours and the very light va-' pours, or even gases..and which, when properly associated together, will roduce alight fuel analogous to gasoline, t us completing the physico-chemical reactions which commenced in the retort. v Furthermore, certain light hydrocarbons of anunstable nature, formed in the retort, are definitely fixed in the state of stable combinations by the expansion and contraction to which they are subjected. 7 But the oil has not been entirely d'ocoin posed into lighter hydrocarbons, and a part of the same remains in its original state of by a pipe 2', and which it will thusheat to a temperature of about 200 C. inorder to prevent calefaction of said fresh petroleum 1n the boiler.

The hydrocarbons remaining in the state of vapourbelow 250 C. and composed for the major part, of the above said light products which have just .been manufactured, are led (arrows 5) into a second expansion and cooling apparatus Got a like construction, but wherein the pressure of the boiling water is maintained at only 3 kilogrammes, i. e. at

a temperature of about 135 C.

The same physical and catalytic actions are repeated insaidsecond apparatus (l, but now only upon hydrocarbons distilling below 250 C. and whereof the major part has already undergone a total transformation or a partial doubling; so that the catalytic work in this second expansion and coolingapparatus is simplified, and a definite stability takes place within the mass of the hydrocarbons wherein the atoms of carbon and hydrogen, or their groups of hydrocarbon molecules, were not yet in a perfectly fixed state.

Those of said hydrocarbons which distil above 180 C. will condense and fall to. the bottom of the second expansion apparatus 0, whence they are evacuated through a pipem and are led to the bottom of the first expansion and cooling apparatus B.

The hydrocarbons which are not con densed in the second expansion and cooling apparatus Cproceed according to the arrows 6 into an ordinary refrigerator 1- with cold water or air circulation, in which is condensed the new liquid fuel according to the invention, and whose rincipal characteris tic features have been ab product is then collected through the cock or valve 'n in one of the vessels in common use for the storage or transportation of petrols, gasolines or other volatile liquid roducts.

ove explained. Said Having now described my invention what I .claim as new and ters Patent is: V

'A motor fuel consisting of a stable mixture of more than 50 per cent of unsaturated hydrocarbons with saturated hydrocarbons, the fraction of said mixture distilling be- 'dosire to secure by Lettween C. and 0. remaining substantiallyfree from nitrobenzene when treated with nitric acid, and the percentage composition of said hydrocarbon mixture bemg subwantially by weight 88 to 89 parts of carbon and 12 to 11 parts of hydrogen. In testimony whereof I have signed -my name to this specification.

ADDLPIIE ANTOINE FIAIQOIS IARIUSSEIGLE. 

